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Monday, 23 September 2013

Fight Club

For many men Fight Club can be
interpreted from many projections from the film. These projections can be from
the characters such as Edward Norton’s character the nameless Narrator to Brad
Pitt’s Tyler Durden. Why a lot of men find themselves connected to the Narrator
is the seemingly boring nine to five office job that he has and the fact we
never find out the Narrators real name throughout the film is another
connection to the male viewer and the Narrator. The protagonist having no name
is one of the major identity connections between the modern world and the
Narrator. So when the male audience watches the Narrator describing his boring
life and his boring job they have a connection with him because they see
themselves as him. Just like in the film Tyler Durden is seen as the character
that every man wants to be. His entire image both physical and psychological is
the main strive for every male to become like him. When the Narrator thinks he
is living the American dream by owning items that he thinks for fill his needs
and allowing him to validate his existence, Tyler Durden is the opposite.

Through mass media there are
constant reminders on; billboards, TV, radio and even music that tell men if
they don’t buy their items they will not be socially accepted. These items can
range from male toiletries to male clothing and even how men should look. Tyler
goes against the consumerist culture and in fact goes against anything that
feeds the corporate machine. Instead of being influenced by advertising and
consumerism a lot of powerful lines suggest that he would destroy the
consumerist culture allowing men to establish an Identity on the basis of
something other than one’s possession. Tyler is almost seen as a saviour for
all men with quotes like “he who liberates me from my possessions realigns my
perception” it’s almost as if he’s reading quotes from the bible but a bible
written by him and his religion. His solution for men to become real men is to
destroy everything and only then you can be free “it's not until we've lost
everything that we are free to do anything”.

How do cultural consumerism
influence, living a moral life, destruction and leaders have to do with
masculinity and men? How the Narrator and his moral life is a representation of
all men when he finally decides that he wants to leave his old boring
consumerist life for a new one he destroys it. Even though Tyler destroyed his
apartment Tyler is the Narrator in the end the Narrator blowing up his own home
was him setting himself free. To throw everything away would not had as much
meaning or be as heroic but to destroy
his apartment and conquer the things he owned that was once owning him had a
much more symbolic meaning. By destroying his own home he now has destroyed his
moral life which now means he’s breaking the social acceptance of everyone
else. At work he would turn up bruised and blood on his shirt from a fight the
night before. From breaking away from the social norm he is now socially
unacceptable. Eventually others follow
in his path and what started off from Fight Club moves away from the basement
and becomes Project Mayhem. Wherever the Narrator goes the talks of Tyler from
Fight Club members and Project Mayhem militants are of admiration and love.
This utter sense of loyalty and love becomes a cult following.

For men to become real men the
journey they undertake in Fight Club is a journey of becoming a warrior. This
explores the masculinity in men by going to an underground basement together
and beating each other to a pulp. There is something more symbolic to this. At
the beginning when Tyler wanted to get into a fight the Narrator refused but
then caved in. Tyler then punched the Narrator and he could barely take it. The
Narrator before use to whine about; being in pain, suffering from insomnia and
go to meetings that made him cry. Now however he goes to Fight Club and endures
himself and others into beatings. The irony in that in order to lose the pain
he had to endure physical pain. This is the symbolic meaning of being able to
take pain because he now feels something. In the act of becoming real men they
also become warriors now. The medals are the broken bones, swollen faces and
bruised bodies however they wear these medals with courage. Nothing can be more
masculine then seeing two gladiators duelling in the Roman Colosseum. Fight
Club has become something more than just bare knuckle boxing under a bar. The
basement has now become the Colosseum for these men. It is now a place of refuge a place where
ordinary men become Gods. Turkish Ottomans would pray before going to battle
and Greek Spartans would make love to their wives before dying in battle. These
a ritualize that warriors would do before going to battle and in Fight Club men
would cut their hair, clip their nails and recite the laws of Fight Club before
the fights begin. Fight Club has become a ritualized and worshipped cult wear
men become real men and slowly become warriors of their era.

For the male viewers that watch
Fight Club there is quite a lot of connection between them and the characters
in the film, however the connection between the male audience and the
characters is not an individual connection but as a whole. Every male viewer
feels connected to the film so rather than feeling like an individual you feel
like you’re part of this all male group. If we explore this idea of belonging
and becoming a man in Fight Club we can see that for a male to join the Paper
Street Gang goes about the same way for new recruits to join the military. A
participant must stand outside the soap factory headquarters and endure hours
and countless insults on the applicant’s identity. After destroying their ego and
shaving their hair the applicant is now a recruit member of the gang. This a
symbolic meaning of breaking someone down and then rebuilding them in the shape
of form you desire. To make everyone shave their hair and dress the same is not
allowing anyone to be an individual. You look the same, you dress the same, you
speak the same and now you are all the same. These men who dedicate themselves
of being the self-assertion model representatives of Tyler. They couldn't find
themselves in the previous boring day jobs and dull lives, but now by being
representatives of Tyler you are now the male figure that you always wanted to
be.

In the final scene of Fight Club
the Narrator killing Tyler is the finally act of rejection. By shooting himself
he isn't just killing Tyler but he is killing the role model for contemporary
male. Fight Club installs in the idea that non-stop self-sabotage that destroying
everything you own to set you free, then destroying your body to rebuild
yourself then shattering the complacent flow of your everyday physiologically.
The journey of the Narrator is the journey that every man somehow uses to
undertake. Why men feel so compelled to the film is the connection between the
Narrator and the male audience. The voyage of; masculinity and men stretch from
men being influenced by cultural consumerism, living a dull boring life too
destroying everything, becoming warriors and then finally just letting go.